Landau to Obersteinbach

Another glorious day on the bike, hot too. According to a gauge in one town it was 30C at 11 am!

I was a bit slow getting going this morning, tired after reading late last night, so I didn’t go down for breakfast until 8. I had a good feed, quite nice, a standard sort of German breakfast. I then went and packed, checked out the location of some Cols and booked a hotel for the night. I finally left around 10; and I thought Tony and I left late!

I’ve picked a route with 4 Cols, 2 relatively straight forward ones plus there is a 2K hill near the finish town which has two next to each other.

The initial riding was very easy as it turns out this is a winery region and here are a lot of bike routes around. Of course there is no indication where any of the paths go so I used them when it was obvious that they were going where I wanted (such as a town name).

Hills, glorious hills! This makes a nice change to the last few weeks. I was immediately into small rolling hills as soon as I left town and was meandered through a bunch of small winery towns. Of course being early in the morning everything was closed. There are quite a few wind farms in the area, including one huge one to the east of my route. Fortunately it isn’t very windy today, phew.

And then, WooHoo, in France.

My first stop was the town of Wissembourg and I’d made good time. It is a lovely historic town so naturally to celebrate be in in France I had to have… a chocolate éclair! I sat in a small park in the centre of town and enjoyed the lovely warm weather. 

Then it was time to head out, and my first real climb to a Col. The route was so beautiful I had to stop on the way up for a photo, ho ho ho J

With my first Col done I headed down the other side and then turned off the direct route to my hotel in order to bag my second Col. Both climbs went well but I needed to go immediately to the granny gear. Aside from that I was very happy; given the lack of riding in recent years and the flat riding in the last week it was nice that I had no problems getting over the climbs.

Once over the second Col it was a pleasant ride down a valley towards the hotel town. I stopped for a sparkling water in one town and there was a bike path at the end of the town. Of course it didn’t have any signs but it seemed to go where I wanted so I gave it a whirl. As it would have it the path follows the main road but on the other side of a stream. So that was nice.

In due course I was coming up to the town and just before hand there was a turn up the D190. Up is the operative word as it was a very steep climb, I had to stop twice, but it was worth it for two Cols! 

Then a ripping descent back into town. There was a Logis de France (huge, looked nice but expensive) and then my nice little hotel (and half the price). It was very quaint inside with big old pieces of furniture and prints everywhere. The floors were split into separate corridors which had their own doors, so I never heard anything from the other guests. I wasn’t sure where to put the bike so I went back to ask the manager and the family was just having lunch, wow it looked and smelt good. Ah France.

Once in the room I did a huge load of washing and then watched the tour, no diary today. After the Tour I walked in each direction from the hotel for a bit to see the town. There was a lovely looking restaurant some distance away beautifully set up but it didn’t seem worthwhile on your own.

Back in the room I read for a bit and watched the after Tour show, then at 7 pm I went across the road for dinner. It was a very nice meal and I thought I probably needed the anti-oxidants, so some wine!

The meal was 3 courses and delicious:
Terrine w bread and 3 salads
Margret of Canard (Duck)
4 boules of sorbet

I washed that all down with a very pleasant half bottle of 2013 Louis Jadot Bourgogne. Unfortunately I didn’t get to finish the last mouthful as an insect decided to have some! A bit sloshed I went back to the room, watched some TV (it was all French to me) so read for a while before sleep around 11.